With the increasing influence of technology, opportunities to communicate with potential stakeholders are abundant. However, amongst a variety of competition, their attention is more difficult to captivate than ever. It is vital that your brand resonates with your clients and potential clients, because having the best offering is not enough, if you don’t have the reputation to back this up.

Managing and reviewing data can often be an overlooked aspect of running a business, but it is vital for assessing performance and effective decision making. It can often seem tedious to trawl through spreadsheets and daunting if you are not mathematically inclined. However, as a leader, having the correct numbers to inform and justify your actions is an asset you cannot afford to disregard.

Having a relevant offering, managing your finances and establishing efficient processes are all fundamental attributes of a successful business. However, forming truly reciprocal stakeholder relationships underpin all these elements. This means interacting with people that most align with your company values, and equally, providing them with a product/service that meets their wants and needs.

Having a tactical focus will be the default position for many leaders. This means dealing with current opportunities and challenges to ensure short-to-medium-term results. As important as this is, not just for overall performance and morale, it is vital that organisations have a more far-reaching strategy for the future. This will facilitate longer-term success that is sustainable and ensures all shorter activities run in a consistent direction.

It can be easy to fall into the mindset that anything bigger must be better. As business leaders, we can often put pressure on ourselves to constantly push for growth, as this seems like the ultimate and expected target. However, I would like to suggest that being the best, rather than the biggest, is not only more achievable, but a far more fulfilling and sustainable solution.

Over the past eighteen months, I have moved from working on my own to welcoming three new members to my team. Together we can offer a greater diversity of content, which presents the philosophies I advocate in a variety of ways and across more platforms. I look forward to 2022, where our skillsets can combine to create more relevant content and offerings than ever before.

Introducing the ‘three marketeers’…

A modern business can be submerged in numbers. As collecting data becomes easier and more widespread, with the introduction of new software, it can be understandably difficult to keep on top of. Many business leaders will rely on their financial department, or resident maths boffins, to make sense of these details and feedback the relevant information. However…

Consider your company’s main aim: where do you want to go? This is your driving ‘why,’ the reason you are in business, the reason you get out of bed every day and tolerate that commute. Losing sight of this vision can be easy amongst the day-to-day challenges; you’re still working towards it, just without the spirit and direction you once had. Taking time to realign with this purpose is vital to motivate yourself and to propel your company forward…

Going into a supermarket hungry can be a big mistake; being surrounded by shelves of tempting treats can frequently lead to unnecessary purchases. The chocolate bar you pick up just before the checkout may seem like a good idea at the time, but in truth you never intended to buy it, it’s not nutritious and it’s not filling. Having a clear idea of what you want and sticking to it should be the strategy, but succumbing to short-term desires can often be the outcome…

Take a look at your company. What would you identify as your areas of particular strength? This could be a product, a service, or your communication with customers. As it stands, these company competencies are the reason people do business with you. Therefore, you should look to build your organisation around them for the best chance of success…

If we personally suffer from short sightedness (myopia) there are a few well proven options, glasses, contact lenses, etc., to correct this condition. Unfortunately, when organisations suffer from a similar condition, in terms of anticipating the future, the solutions can be more difficult to implement. Sometimes a degree of denial can be in place, which can make admitting this condition more complex. For humans, myopia is not terminal but inconvenient; for companies it can be far more serious…

As an effective leader, visualising the future has no value if you cannot communicate it.

Storytelling has been a valued art since the beginning of human civilisation. Those who could most effectively communicate gained authority and prestige. The fact that Homer’s Odyssey is still studied on syllabuses today is testament to the value our society puts in telling a good tale. Beyond fiction however, creating an engaging narrative is also a vital tool in inspiring others and recruiting them to your cause…

Marie Kondo is an organising consultant whose methodical approach to decluttering has grown a worldwide following over the past few years. Her practices are built around a simple, five-step process:

1. Discarding by category comes first.

2. Break a category into subcategories as necessary.

3. Keep only those things that spark joy.

4. After you’ve finished discarding, organise your space thoroughly and completely.

5. Do it all in one go.

There is an amount of detail behind each step, but the basic principle is to keep things that serve or bring you joy. Simple but liberating when applied…

• Is the gap between the business you want to create and reality growing?

• Do you wish to develop you company but are unsure either of what improvements to make or how to implement them?

• Are you frustrated because your efforts and outcomes seem imbalanced?

If any of these concerns apply, you may be caught in the success trap…

Stickiness refers to the commitment a person has to an organisation, cause, or belief. Having a high degree of stickiness will not only result in greater stakeholder retention, but also stakeholder engagement. Customers will spend more, employees will be more productive, and suppliers will be more collaborative. This is an effective attribute because finding new stakeholders is a greater drain on resources; this will also provide a more certain financial base to develop from…

Satisfied clients/customers might continue their relationship with your company, but there is always the possibility that they may choose one of your competitors with a more favourable offering. Therefore, the best way to retain their business is to delight them, going beyond what they would expect…

True reciprocal relationships are the most productive as loyalty and engagement are cultivated. Therefore, demonstrating your appreciation for your stakeholder will make these relationships longer lasting. If your clients, employees, or suppliers feel unrecognised or under-valued they will begin to consider your competitors…

During my work as a coach, one of the situations I come across most frequently is business owners and leaders that are operating profitable, growing companies but do not feel successful. There is a misalignment between what the numbers are saying and how things are really progressing both for them and their team. They fit the analogy of the swan well, where things seem serene above the water, but this is at odds with the stress and strains below which are maintaining momentum. I call this condition the success trap…

During the pandemic, most business have had to adapt their processes and offerings. This is particularly true for the health and fitness sector whose communal gyms and active spaces have been closed. Consequently, developing a service that could function without physical interaction became essential if great losses were to be avoided…

Strategy can be related to the longer-term mission and vision you want your company to achieve. Tactics are shorter-term actions that keep you aligned with whatever the current trends may be or the immediate challenges and opportunities you might have. Pricing, positioning, and proposition can be tactically adjusted to make sure the overall strategy is running effectively…